Chapter 27
WILL
On Friday morning, I woke up with Eliza in my bed and knew immediately that I was in too deep. Catastrophically, irrevocably, going-to-need-therapy-after-this deep.
Mentally, I acknowledged it. I was just actively choosing to ignore it.
“Are you sure about wanting to come to the office with me today?” I asked, glancing at her as I pulled into the underground parking garage.
“It’s going to be painfully boring for you.
People around here treat acquisitions like they’re a blood sport, but if that’s not the kind of thing you’re entertained by, I doubt you’re going to enjoy a day at HQ. ”
She smiled. Her expression was bright, curious, and completely undeterred.
“Did you know that one of the key features of Elizabethan society in England was the enjoyment of blood sports? Those are my ancestors. I’m sure I can handle whatever qualifies as gory in the corporate headquarters of an American finance firm. ”
I snorted trying to hold back surprised laughter. “Right, but while you may be named after her, you weren’t ever actually part of Elizabethan society.”
“Well, then, here’s another fun fact for you. I wasn’t actually named after the queen. The earliest use of my name can be traced back to—”
“I haven’t even set up an office here yet,” I said suddenly, lying through my teeth as I parked. I hadn’t meant to interrupt her. This was just not ideal and I’d been nervous since she’d first asked to come with me. “I’m still transitioning back.”
“Yeah, that’s okay.” She was already unbuckling her seatbelt, clearly entirely unaffected by me accidentally cutting her off. “I’d still like to see the place.”
Fuck. This was a mistake. A colossal, identity-destroying mistake, but I had tried to talk her out of it every way I knew how and she was still adamant.
The second we stepped out of the elevator onto my floor, I felt the shift in the air. Every single person here knew who I was—and that I wasn’t Jesse. Most of them had never even met him.
“Morning, Will,” the receptionist called as we walked in.
Eliza frowned a little, glancing up at me when I just waved and kept walking. “That was odd. Although I suppose you and your brother must get that a lot around here.”
I shrugged, my shoulders tight as I led her down the hall. One of the analysts, Alex’s current favorite minion, came rushing toward me. “Will, do you have a minute. I—”
“Later,” I said smoothly, not breaking stride as my hand settled lightly in the small of Eliza’s back to guide her forward.
She glanced up at me, amused. “Well, your brother certainly seems popular.”
“Yeah, they’ve really taken to him.”
Another exec passed us, slowing just enough to frown slightly. “Will? I thought you were in—”
I waved him off like I had something extremely important to do, which was true. It was called avoiding complete and utter exposure.
As we turned the corner, leaving the baffled manager staring after us, Eliza let out a soft laugh. “You and Will must be very hard to tell apart.”
I exhaled through my nose. “It’s a real problem.”
“You don’t say.”
“Lifelong issue. Traumatizing, really.”
She bumped her shoulder lightly into mine. “You seem tense.”
“I’m always tense here,” I said. “It’s part of my charm.”
When she smiled at me again, I forgot for one brief second that I was actively committing fraud, but then I saw Nate. He was standing near the glass railing with Kate beside him, the two of them talking intently, but the second his eyes landed on me, his entire expression changed.
It landed somewhere between oh, for fuck’s sake and you absolute idiot. Kate followed his gaze, and when her eyes met mine, I knew I was in trouble. If looks could kill, I would have dropped dead instantly, collapsing right there on the polished marble floor.
“Nate,” I said when we reached them. “Have you met Eliza?”
“Jesse,” he replied evenly, mercifully in the loop about what was going on.
Eliza glanced between us, polite and curious. “Hi.”
“Eliza,” I said, glancing at her before motioning at them. “This is Nathaniel, my brother and CFO, and Kate, his wife.”
Kate stepped forward, all smiles and sweetness that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Eliza.”
I almost flinched when she glanced at me as she said it, her tone conveying a message that was definitely for me. I am going to ruin your life in about thirty seconds.
Eliza, however, lit up with a bright smile aimed at my sister-in-law. “It’s lovely to meet you as well. I was wondering when I would get to meet the family.”
Nate cleared his throat. “Actually, I was just about to head upstairs. Would you like to see the next floor, Eliza? It’s marginally less boring.”
He tilted his head slightly toward Kate in warning. Bless him.
I nodded immediately. “Yeah. You should go. You wanted to see the place, right?”
She hesitated, glancing at me. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Go. Be amazed by more offices.”
She laughed but let Nate lead her away, only glancing back at me once before disappearing into the elevator with him.
The second the doors closed, Kate turned on me. “You’re a dumbass.”
I exhaled a harsh breath. “Good morning to you too, Katie. Yeah, it’s great to see you. I missed you too.”
“No, seriously,” she snapped, planting her hands on her hips. “A dumbass, Will. What the hell are you doing?”
“Keeping my family from imploding,” I said.
“By lying to that girl’s face?” she shot back. “For weeks?”
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s not,” she said fiercely. “It’s stupid. How could you agree to this?”
“Jesse ran back to Florida, but Alex already had a plan and my father won’t let this go until it’s done.” I paused, sighing before I added just one last thing. “I thought I could handle it, so I stepped up when Alex asked me to.”
“You thought you could handle it? What does that mean?”
“It means that I can’t, but I’m in too deep to climb out now.”
Her expression softened just a fraction. “Yeah. No kidding.”
“It was supposed to be temporary. I was just going to be a placeholder for a day or two until Jesse got his head out of his ass.”
“But that still hasn’t happened.”
I sighed. “Apparently, he’ll be here soon.”
“And when he gets here, where does that leave you?”
“I think…” I trailed off, staring at nothing in the distance until I finally just admitted it. “I think it’s going to break me when Jesse takes over.”
Kate’s eyes widened. “It’s that bad?”
“It’s worse.” I let out a humorless laugh.
“So much worse. I don’t want to give her up and I know how that sounds.
I know it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
But she’s—” I cut myself off, shaking my head.
“She’s everything, and I’ve been lying to her the entire time.
Plus, I’ve done a really bad job at trying to be Jesse.
I was supposed to be paving the way for him, but instead, she’s going to have to get to know a whole different person once they’re married. ”
Kate crossed her arms. “So what’s your plan?”
I pushed off the wall, straightening my jacket. “I don’t have one.”
“That’s not reassuring, Will. That poor girl has moved across an ocean to be with you. What the hell is she supposed to do when she suddenly finds herself living with a man who’s not at all the same person as she got to know before the wedding?”
“I’m trying, okay?” I scrubbed a hand over my face and looked back at Kate, who was still staring at me like she was deciding whether to yell or adopt me out to a different family. “It’s just been harder than I thought, pretending to be him. We’re nothing alike.”
She arched an eyebrow—steeply. “Well, that’s a groundbreaking realization, isn’t it? Especially this late in the game.”
“I’m serious,” I said. “We might look alike, but that’s where it ends. I’m different and no matter what I do, when I’m with her, I keep reverting to myself.”
While I would never say it out loud, I was softer than my brother. More romantic. I took things more seriously and felt a lot deeper. “Jesse is good at winging it, whatever it might be. He lives his life by the seat of his pants and I love him for it, but that’s just not me. It’s not Eliza either.”
Some of the tension eased out of Kate’s expression as she nodded. “Jesse lights the match and walks away. You stay to put out the fire.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
The corners of her mouth twitched into a reluctant smile. “Did you really think you were going to be able to mimic your chaos-gremlin twin?”
“Thank you for summarizing my crisis so succinctly, but no. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off because I wasn’t thinking at all.”
She sighed, the fight draining out of her. “This is still the dumbest thing I’ve ever witnessed.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I muttered. “We’ve had some strong contenders.”
“Will.”
“Fine. It’s definitely top three, but in my defense, it wasn’t my idea, and if I’d known how long it was going to carry on, I never would have agreed in the first place.”
She rolled her eyes. “You never should’ve agreed either way, but for what it’s worth, you’re not alone in thinking this is insane. Jane has been giving Alex hell about it.”
I let out a low whistle. “I’d pay to see that.”
“Charlotte threatened to fly up from her dreamy life in Texas just to wring all of your necks.”
I blinked hard. “All of ours?”
Kate shrugged. “Yeah. She’s not discriminating, and frankly, neither am I. You’re all on the shit list. You, Jesse, Nate, Alex, and your dad. Your other brothers too, if they know what’s going on.”
“Fantastic,” I deadpanned. “So the women of the family are not united in their desire to see me survive this.”
Kate snorted. “We’re on Eliza’s side. Sorry.”
“That’s fair, I guess.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Jesse is supposed to fly in for the garden party tomorrow afternoon, right?”
I let out a slow breath. “That’s the plan, but I doubt he’ll show.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Do you think he’s going to bail again? Alex seems pretty confident he’s going to be there and Nate just keeps saying that Alex knows what he’s doing”
“I think Jesse does whatever Jesse wants, and right now, this isn’t what he wants.”
Her lips pursed. “So what happens if he doesn’t show?”
I let out another humorless laugh. “I don’t know, but at this rate, I might have to be him all the way to the wedding.”
Kate sniffed and shook her head, her gaze intense on mine. “What happens then, Will? You marry her as Jesse? That’s not legal, or right. Or sane.”
“No,” I agreed quietly. “It’s not. I want out. I just don’t know how to say it. Especially to her.”
“Yeah,” she murmured. “That’s going to hurt.”
Before I could respond, the elevator dinged behind us and Nate motioned for Eliza to get out first. She laughed at something he’d said and the sound hit me square in the chest.
Kate shot me one last look. Get it together, Will. Now.
“Everything good?” Nate asked casually when they rejoined us, but the look he gave Kate was everything but casual.
“Perfect,” I said. “No mortal doom is predicted to hit W&S today.”
“Great,” he replied dryly. “Love that for us.”
Eliza stepped closer to me, her smile softening. “Your office isn’t boring, by the way.”
“Give it time,” I said. “It grows on you. Like mold.”
She laughed, and once again, I felt it in my chest. Everything in me settled at the sound, like I’d been missing a part of myself while she’d been gone.
Nate glanced between us, frowning slightly before he seemed to decide something. “Come over for dinner tonight. Our place. Does eight work?”
I sighed but nodded. “We’ll be there.”
They left us soon after that, and for the rest of the day, my conversation with Kate replayed itself in my mind. By the time we arrived at their house, Nate confirmed my suspicions that Kate had not only talked to him about everything I’d said, but that he’d put it together anyway.
While the girls talked after dinner about travel, books, and spa treatments that changed lives, my brother handed over another drink. “So, what’s the plan?”
I took a sip, buying myself a second. “Bold of you to assume I have one.”
Nate didn’t smile. “This is serious, Will.”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
“That you and Eliza have feelings for each other?” he said. “Yeah. It’s not subtle.”
“Great,” I muttered. “I shouldn’t have enjoyed your misery so much. I feel like this is karma, biting me in the ass for it.”
He chuckled. “Maybe it is, but what are you going to do about it?”
I stared into my glass for a second. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“I know what I want to do, but what I want is impossible.”
“Impossible?” Nate was quiet for a beat. “Why? Because of Jesse?”
“She doesn’t even know who I am, Nate. I’ve been lying to her from day one, and the second the truth comes out, this is over. We’re over.”
Nate followed my gaze when I looked at her across the room, his expression unreadable. “Maybe.”
I scoffed. “No. Not maybe. Definitely.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he said, glancing at Kate. “Also, nothing is impossible, Will. You only feel like it is because you’re assuming you don’t have a choice.”
I let out a short laugh. “I don’t.”
“Of course, you do.”
I frowned. “How do you figure?”
“Things have changed,” he said simply. “Alex just needs to know that.”
God, he’s not wrong. “You might be onto something there.”
He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Whatever you decide, I’ve got your back.”
I glanced over at Eliza again. She was smiling at something Kate said, her whole face lighting up in a way that made my chest ache. Finally, I nodded at my brother. “I’ll bring it up at the party.”
One way or another, this whole thing was going to blow up, but Alex wasn’t the bad guy in our story. If I just gave it to him straight, maybe he could help me fix it so that after the explosion, once the dust settled, I would have a chance at winning her back.